Screen-Free Week was... unexpected...

I promised to post about Screen-Free week once we weren't screen-free anymore and what kinds of adventures we had instead of being in front of a screen.

Well, the first thing I discovered the morning we ended screen-free week was that I hadn't used the "schedule" button correctly so, ooooooops, all those posts I pre-wrote didn't show up as I thought they would. Oh, well! Good thing I haven't put too much energy into building readership yet!

Overall, the week didn't go as we expected, although we really and truly stuck out the screen-free element... we just also happened to get pneumonia among us, including the baby who is now in the hospital. I-yi-yi...

Thankfully, she is a good kind of sick, where her energy levels are good indications that she's getting better. Plus her fever is a thing of the past (though it took a week!) We just can't get her breathing rate to come down to where they feel comfortable letting her come home.

So that excitement pretty much took precedence over all the other exciting things we had planned. The roller skating didn't happen. Neither did the parade. Although Daddy did take the kiddos swimming one night (we just pretended not to worry about bedtime).

The kids have been good sports about it all and I suppose it is a lesson in priorities... I've been learning more about prayer, the real kind that helps me know God is alive and cares about li'l ol' me, and my sweet li'l baby... and that true comfort comes when I let him know I trust him and whatever his will might be.

As far as the report on screen-free goes, I got a little creative when I needed phone numbers -- even used a phone book for what it was meant for rather than as a paper weight. My three-year old was AMAZING -- kudos to him for embracing the opportunity to play with playdough and use his imagination and play with friends and everything else he did, all without a screen. My iPod-owning son was remarkable in his self-restraint! My twin daughters just kept diverting their attention with friends, friends, and more friends. My ten-year old slept a lot because, alas, he was the other victim of the pneumonia bug in the house.

And here in the hospital I just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet. They even have a poster that says, "A quiet environment promotes healing." Aaaahhhh, a mother of six doesn't often get quiet...